Graham Thomson: Alberta's UCP loses two of its fiercest proponents in one day

February 2 is not a day the United Conservative Party wants to remember.
On Friday morning, one-time political star Derek Fildebrandt was unceremoniously told he would never be allowed back into the UCP caucus and could not run for the party in next year’s provincial election.
A few hours later, MLA Don MacIntyre abruptly resigned from the caucus.

In the space of a few hours, the UCP had lost two of its most fiery proponents: Fildebrandt because the party said he couldn’t be trusted; MacIntrye because he announced he was quitting politics (but providing no details why).

The UCP went into damage-control overdrive by handling the two cases dramatically differently.

The party issued a relatively detailed news release Friday morning to explain why Fildebrandt, MLA for Strathmore-Brooks, had been politically ostracized. Several news outlets issued headlines saying it was because he had been found guilty Friday of illegal hunting and fined $3,000.

But it wasn’t that he illegally shot a deer; it was that he, bizarrely, shot down his own credibility in a meeting with UCP Leader Jason Kenney.

He had “deliberately misled” Kenney and other party officials about the hunting charge months ago.

According to the party’s sharply worded news release, Kenney and several party officials met with Fildebrandt Nov. 27 to see if there were any “outstanding matters” that would prevent them inviting him back into the UCP caucus.

Fildebrandt had quit caucus last August after a series of gaffes embarrassed the party. But he wanted back in and the party wanted him back, too.

To Kenney, Fildebrandt was a trusted friend and fierce political ally — and in Kenney’s own words, “a talented, principled young conservative.”

But the party was also cautious.

This, after all, was a politician who couldn’t seem to stay out of trouble.

Besides sticking his foot in his mouth repeatedly on social media, news broke last August that he had been renting out a taxpayer-funded apartment in Edmonton on Airbnb. Then he was charged with backing his truck into a neighbour’s car and driving off (he was eventually found guilty and fined $400).

Kenney wanted to know in the meeting if Fildebrandt had any other skeletons in his closet.

According to Kenney, Fildebrandt was close-lipped.

Uh-oh.

What Kenney didn’t find out until later was that Fildebrandt was facing a charge of illegal hunting.

“We questioned Mr. Fildebrandt extensively for an hour,” said Kenney. “At no point during that meeting did Mr. Fildebrandt disclose that just 25 days prior he had been charged with the offence which led to his court hearing.”

Kenney issued a damning decision on Fildebrandt’s future: “I can only conclude that Mr. Fildebrandt deliberately misled us in refusing to disclose this outstanding charge. Consequently, neither I nor our caucus can have confidence in the veracity of his undertakings to us. I have therefore decided that Mr. Fildebrandt will not be permitted to return to our caucus, a decision supported by our caucus following consultations earlier today.”

And just to make sure the nail was properly pounded in, Kenney concluded his statement by announcing, “I have decided that Mr. Fildebrandt will not be permitted to seek a United Conservative Party nomination.”

Kenney also used the occasion to warn UCP caucus members and prospective candidates that Fildebrandt’s fate should serve as a cautionary tale: “If a prospective nominee deliberately misleads the party about outstanding legal or ethical issues in the same way that Mr. Fildebrandt misled us about his outstanding legal charges, they will be disqualified automatically from seeking a nomination.”

Thus was Fildebrandt well and truly skewered.

That’s in marked contrast to the taciturn release from the party about MacIntyre.

The UCP issued a one-line statement at the end of the business day Friday: “At approximately noon today Don MacIntyre resigned from the United Conservative caucus.”

MacIntyre issued his own cryptic tweet saying he was “resigning from politics to focus on family.” Wait. Is he quitting the caucus or is he leaving politics altogether? And, more importantly, why?